20200514 Zoom Session with Caṭṭagrāma Devotees

The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 14th,2020 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The talk was given to the Caṭṭagrāma Devotees via zoom.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: I am very happy that today I am meeting the Caṭṭagrāma devotees. I will speak a little in short, after which if you have any questions I will answer. After taking some questions here, I will check if there are questions on Facebook or Zoom I will answer. After that I will try to see if I can visit some homes.

Presently, we are all affected by COVID-19 corona virus. People all over the world are facing difficulties and suffering on account of this. Presently some of our devotees in Dhaka temple have turned COVID positive. But with various Russian and Chinese medications, the devotees because they eat vegetarian food and do chanting of the holy names, in a very few days they turned COVID negative! We hope that these medications could be of use to any other devotees who are down with the COVID corona virus. There is some of this medication on YouTube and will give you the link. Besides this, there are no allopathic medicines or vaccine as yet. That is why we have been asked to wear mask, wash our hands frequently and keep social distancing. Because this virus can stay alive for three days on some hard surface, like the road, the lift buttons, etc. if we touch any of these surfaces, then the virus can get transferred to our hands. That is why they say to wash our hands again and again with soap to get rid of the virus. But Śrīla Prabhupāda says in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the fourth canto that because we have broken many laws of nature, like people eat nonveg, intoxication of various kinds and therefore break many laws of God, because of all this, we are facing the pandemic now.

Now because of this situation we are forced to stay at home, and we therefore have the opportunity to chant the names of the Lord and read the śāstras. If you have known people, relatives, friends, etc. then on the internet you can get them to chant and do kīrtana of the names of God. I see that those who do Nāmahaṭṭa and Bhakti-vṛkṣa preaching they can congregate on the internet as well. Those who have smart phones, how many are online now? 211 so 211 of us could meet on zoom today! Surely not everyone on this have computers, many will be on the mobile phone. So this way there is opportunity to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness through mobile phone using internet. We would be limited to meeting 10 or 11 people physically at a time, but by internet we can meeting hundreds of people at a time. In Thiruvananthapuram, the devotees have started a new Bhagavad-gītā class online for new people and they thought maybe 50 or 60 people will sign up. But there were 500 people online who attended and watched the Bhagavad-gītā class. I heard that His Holiness Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Mahārāja, who gives a class every night online, thousands and thousands of people hear that. I don’t know how many people hear my class. I speak in English every night but that is translated to Bengali, Chinese, etc.

This way in the wake of this COVID-19 we have the special opportunity to preach by chanting the names of the Lord, doing kīrtana, etc. Now through Zoom I can talk with people individually too. On Facebook this facility is not available but on Facebook thousands and thousands of people can watch and hear the class. Anyway, taking this opportunity we can preach about God. In Bangladesh the more prevalent religion is Islam. So we have to continue giving due respect to Islam as well.

This Russian medication for COVID-19 the YouTube link for that I will send you. Along with this you have to chant some mantras of the Lord and use the medication. But if there are Muslims or other religions who do not want to chant the Sanskrit mantras then they can chant the name of the Lord in the Quran as well. This way they can chant the names of the Lord as mentioned in their śāstras. We do not have any objection. Anyway, we chant the mantras in Sanskrit. Hari or Narasiṁha or Kṛṣṇa, chanting these names we get delivered from various diseases. Material and spiritual diseases.

Many people ask how can we do service to the Lord in the midst of these very difficult situations? In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says, this world is duḥkhālayam, place of suffering and aśāśvatam, temporary. We want to establish a permanent happiness in this temporary world – how is that possible? That is why we are trying to see that everyone goes back to the eternal spiritual world. And if we chant the names of the Lord, and do kīrtana, then we will get the special mercy of the Lord. I have spoken in short now.

If you have any questions?

Question: We are gṛhastha devotees and have many desires. How can we become determined and fixed in following your instructions?

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya and our previous ācāryas have said:

gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko

Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura who appeared in Bangladesh, he said, gṛhe vā vane te thāki, jei hā gaurāṅga ḍāki! Sei āmāra prāṇa re! So you chant the name of Kṛṣṇa and especially eat vegetarian, kṛṣṇa-prasāda and no intoxication and no gambling. And no illicit sex other than with husband or wife. Try to observe the rules gradually in gṛhastha life, and as mentioned in the Manu-saṁhitā, on the Amāvasyā day, Ekādaśī, Pūrṇimā, Aṣṭamī and festival days, like Narasiṁha Caturdaśī, Rāma Navamī, the days should be avoided for trying for a child. Also do the garbhādāna-saṁskāra. This is one way of disciplining the devotees. As far as possible please try and chant the name of Kṛṣṇa.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma,Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!